When crises loom and ultra-conservative and religiously oriented governments take over, women almost inevitably get the shorter end of the stick.
While women had gotten stronger and enjoyed more influence and equality before the re-emergence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his extreme Right coalition partners came to power and the Iron Swords War broke out, it has declined significantly and rapidly since.
That is the conclusion of a 17-page report on Gender Inequality just issued by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and its Yoda’at (“she knows”) – Israel Knowledge Center on Women and Gender that has studied the ups and downs of women’s rights since 2012.
This year’s index was led by researcher Hadass Ben Eliyahu, together with Ronna Brayer-Garb, Prof. Hanna Herzog, Hagar Tzameret, and Prof. Naomi Chazan.
The report, which is due to be discussed in Knesset committees, has been sent to relevant ministries, government decision-makers, journalists, and academic researchers. It provides a wide-ranging evaluation of the inequality between men and women in Israel over time. It supplies a detailed picture of the state of inequality in various areas of life – work, education, poverty, political and economic power, culture, violence, division of time, health, center-periphery relations, Arab society, ultra-Orthodox society, and the situation of older women. Two new indicators were added in 2023 – the gender gap in travel time to and from work and the number of pension receivers aged 65+.
The index makes it possible to assign an overall score to gender inequality on the basis of the aggregate of factors that determine the status of women in society. As other countries around the world compile such an index for themselves, Israel has declined in its rating in the last two years, Ben Eliyahu told The Jerusalem Post.
SHE FOCUSES on inculcating gender mainstreaming among activist women groups and on developing and implementing strategies for gendered change in organizations. She has headed the research branch of the Center for Behavioral Sciences in the Israel Defense Forces. At Van Leer, she is now the scientific director of the Israel Knowledge Center on Women and Gender, where she leads projects in the field of gender equality, including the Gender Index.
“Since the beginning of the measurement in 2004, there has been a 23% decrease in the overall level of gender inequality in Israel – an improvement of 1.2% on average per year. Unfortunately, politics and the nature of governments largely affect the status of women,” she said.
“Under the short time that Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid were prime ministers, the women’s equality index improved significantly,” Ben Eliyahu pointed out, explaining that the unity government has hiked the number of female ministers and directors-general in government ministries.
In the economic arena
In the economic arena, there was an increase in the representation of women among CEOs in the private sector and on the boards of directors of companies – some private but mainly governmental.
“Today we are at low tide; it’s not just Right or Left but militarism, authoritarianism, and the attacks on democracy. More women have served in the IDF – both regular service and the reserves – in this war, but it is the militarism that affects the index,” she continued.
“There is more domestic violence against women and a decline in women getting matriculation. Particularly notable are [both] the increase in the number of women treated in the Social Affairs Ministry centers for dealing with domestic violence and the decrease in women’s sense of security while walking in their neighborhoods after dark.
“In 2023, there were 35 cases of gender-based femicide. Arab women especially have greater difficulty getting to work and appearing in the public sphere.”
The new index shows a 12% increase in the level of gender equality in Israel from 2021-2022 due to a significant increase in the political representation of women in the 36th government. In 2023-2024, however, there was a severe impact on the representation of women in the political and economic arena, which led to a dramatic decrease in the level of gender equality in Israel.
The report states that “The continuation of the war leads to a widening of gender gaps and a deepening of inequality: The employment of most women is less stable and less rewarding than that of men, and therefore, the longer the war continues, the more economically disadvantaged they are. War violence, as well as violence in the public sphere, permeates the private-family sphere, where women are the main victims,” the report states.
It also points to another potential side-effect of the war: “The increase in the spread of private weapons and the lack of oversight mechanisms may lead to an increase in violence in society in general and against women in particular.”
THE DECLINE is not due to the lack of contributions to the war effort by Israeli women, Ben Eliyahu insists. Women are largely providing social, psychological, and other support services as the need for help for the evacuees and families of those murdered by terrorists has grown immensely. But they are not getting their fair share in gender equality.
“It doesn’t happen by itself. They must get more resources and equal wages,” she said. The diversion of state resources to finance the war and the economic crisis is reducing social services and the state’s social safety net at a time when needs are only growing.
In the area of violence against women, there has been a deterioration in almost all indicators. This situation is particularly worrying against the backdrop of the rise of authoritarianism and the erosion of democracy in Israel, as the exclusion of women from decision-making centers in the state and the disregard for gender considerations within them are leading to a widening of gender gaps and are being tangibly expressed in the lives of women.
The policy decisions made in these areas do not reflect the needs and priorities of half of Israel’s population,” the report continues. “The processes of deepening inequality between women and men and the exclusion of women from decision-making centers are a real threat to the democratic foundations of the state.”
The report can be viewed at https://www.vanleer.org.il/en/publication/the-gender-index-2023/